CambodiaAngkor Wat, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang

Why Visit Cambodia?

Cambodia contains one of the greatest photographic subjects on Earth — Angkor Wat — and the country around it is equally compelling. The temple complex at Angkor spreads across a jungle the size of a city, with dozens of distinct structures ranging from the grand symmetry of Angkor Wat itself to the moss-covered, tree-swallowed ruins of Ta Prohm. Beyond the temples, the floating villages of Tonle Sap Lake and the resilient street life of Phnom Penh add human depth to a destination that could easily become just a tick on a sightseers' list.

Photography Highlights of Cambodia

● Angkor Wat at sunrise is one of those experiences where the cliché is completely earned. The reflection of the five towers in the moat at first light, with the sky turning pink behind them, is genuinely one of the most beautiful things I've photographed. Get there at 5am — it's worth losing the sleep.

● Ta Prohm — the "Tomb Raider temple" — where enormous silk-cotton tree roots have swallowed stone walls and galleries. The dappled light filtering through the canopy here creates extraordinary conditions for available-light photography.

● Tonle Sap Lake — the floating villages are unlike anywhere else in Southeast Asia. Entire communities live on water — schools, pagodas, shops — and photographing daily life from a small boat gives you perspectives you simply can't get on land.

● Street food and market life in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Cambodia's food scene is visually rich — from insects on skewers to elaborate Buddhist offerings, the colour and texture are everywhere.

Kampot — a small colonial-era town on the Kampot River near the Thai border in southern Cambodia, and perhaps the finest place in the country for slow travel. The French colonial shophouses, the riverside café scene, the surrounding pepper plantations (Kampot pepper is considered the world's finest and is used by Michelin-starred restaurants globally — it is grown in the hills above the town and the farm tours are worthwhile), and the completely unhurried pace of life make Kampot an excellent base for 2–3 days. Bokor National Park, accessible from Kampot, contains a spectacularly atmospheric abandoned hill station (French colonial resort, now partially reclaimed by jungle) and the summit road offers views over the Gulf of Thailand.

Kep — a tiny former French resort town on the Gulf of Thailand, 25km from Kampot, famous for its crab market (the finest blue crab in Southeast Asia, eaten simply boiled or cooked in Kampot pepper sauce at wooden tables overlooking the water) and for its serenity. The Kep National Park hiking trail through the forest takes about 2 hours and offers views over the Gulf and the nearby Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay), where basic wooden bungalows and perfect isolation make for an excellent overnight escape.

The Mekong and Tonle Sap — the Tonle Sap lake, connected to the Mekong by the Tonle Sap River, is one of the most extraordinary freshwater ecosystems in Asia: the largest lake in Southeast Asia in the dry season, it expands to six times its dry-season size during the monsoon as the Mekong backs up and reverses the flow of the Tonle Sap River — a natural hydraulic phenomenon unique in the world. The floating villages on the Tonle Sap (Kompong Phluk, Kompong Khleang) — entire communities of wooden houses on stilts that float as the water rises and falls — are accessible by boat from Siem Reap and provide an extraordinary window into a way of life entirely determined by the water cycle.

Battambang — Cambodia's second city, 4 hours by bus (or the slow scenic route by boat down the Sangkae River) from Siem Reap. The finest French colonial architecture in Cambodia outside Phnom Penh; an excellent art scene; and the renowned Phare Ponleu Selpak circus school — an NGO that trains orphaned and vulnerable children in circus arts, whose performances are the finest cultural experience in provincial Cambodia. The surrounding countryside — rice paddy flat, dotted with sugar palm trees, with the Cardamom Mountains visible on the horizon — is best explored by bicycle.

Cambodia cannot be understood without understanding the Khmer Rouge period (1975–1979), and visiting without engaging with this history is to see only the surface of a country whose present is inseparable from its recent past.

The Khmer Rouge — the radical communist movement led by Pol Pot — took power on 17 April 1975, when their forces entered Phnom Penh. Within days they had evacuated the entire city: 2 million people were driven at gunpoint into the countryside to work as agricultural labourers in the regime's attempt to transform Cambodia into a Maoist agrarian utopia — "Year Zero." Money was abolished. Schools and hospitals were closed. Religion was banned. The educated classes — teachers, doctors, engineers, anyone who wore glasses (interpreted as evidence of literacy) — were targeted for execution. Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million people died — approximately a quarter of Cambodia's entire population — through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labour.

The context matters: Cambodia had been devastated before the Khmer Rouge arrived. Between 1969 and 1973, the United States dropped 2.75 million tonnes of bombs on Cambodia — more tonnage than all Allied bombing in World War Two combined — in an attempt to disrupt Vietnamese supply lines. The bombing killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, destroyed rural communities, and created the rage and instability that the Khmer Rouge exploited. This context does not diminish the Khmer Rouge's crimes, but it explains the vacuum into which they moved.

Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21) — the former high school in central Phnom Penh that the Khmer Rouge transformed into their primary security prison. At least 17,000 men, women, and children were interrogated, tortured, and executed here; only twelve are known to have emerged alive. The classrooms still contain the iron bed frames used for torture; the walls hold the black-and-white photographs that the Khmer Rouge systematically took of every prisoner (their obsessive documentation is what makes Tuol Sleng so devastating — you see the faces of the people, not just the numbers). The audio guide with survivor testimonies is the most important way to experience this place.

Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields) — 14km south of Phnom Penh, on a former orchard, the primary execution site for Tuol Sleng's prisoners. The stupa of skulls at the site's centre contains the remains of 8,000 victims exhumed from 86 mass graves. The Buddhist stupa and the memorial garden are places of genuine quiet. The bone fragments and fabric that emerge from the earth after each rainy season are collected by staff and respectfully preserved. Visiting both Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek is emotionally heavy — many visitors need several hours to process the experience. It is also, and this is important, an act of witness that the survivors and the families of victims have consistently asked visitors to perform. They want the world to know and remember.

Cambodian cuisine is one of Southeast Asia's most underrated culinary traditions — gentler and less aggressively spiced than Thai or Vietnamese food, built on a foundation of fresh herbs, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, and the distinctive kroeung paste (a laboriously ground blend of aromatic roots and spices that forms the base of most Khmer cooking), with an emphasis on balance between savoury, sour, and sweet that produces food of real subtlety and depth.

Fish amok — considered the national dish of Cambodia. Fresh river fish steamed in coconut cream and kroeung paste inside a banana leaf cup, producing a custard-like consistency that is simultaneously delicate and intensely flavoured with lemongrass and kaffir lime. Fish amok appears on every tourist restaurant menu in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh; the versions at family-run local restaurants and at the better traditional Khmer restaurants are substantially superior to the mass-produced tourist versions.

Lok lak — cubed beef or chicken stir-fried in an oyster and soy sauce, served over rice or noodles with a dipping sauce of fresh lime juice and black pepper that is one of the finest simple sauces in Southeast Asian cooking. The Kampot pepper version of the sauce (using the fresh green or dried black pepper from the Kampot hills) is the finest expression of this dish.

Bai sach chrouk — the breakfast dish of Cambodia, served everywhere from dawn: thin slices of pork marinated in coconut cream and garlic, grilled over charcoal, served over broken rice with pickled vegetables and a pork broth. The best version is eaten at a plastic-table street stall at 7am, cost around US$1.50.

Nom banh chok — fresh rice vermicelli noodles served with a green fish curry sauce (made with lemongrass, galangal, and turmeric) and topped with fresh bean sprouts, banana blossom, and various fresh herbs. A morning street food eaten throughout Cambodia, sold by vendors who make the noodles fresh before dawn.

Cambodian coffee — Cambodian coffee culture is its own specific pleasure: strong Robusta coffee brewed through a filter sock, served iced with sweetened condensed milk. The result (café sua noh — Khmer iced coffee) is extraordinarily sweet and dense. The coffee shop culture in Phnom Penh has also developed a strong specialty coffee scene, reflecting the younger generation's engagement with the wider world.

Khmer culture and etiquette — Cambodian culture is shaped by Theravada Buddhism, which is the religion of approximately 95% of the population. The head is considered sacred and should never be touched; shoes are removed before entering temples and many private homes; the sampah (hands pressed together in a greeting bow) is the correct formal greeting. Cambodians are extraordinarily warm and patient with visitors. Displaying anger or frustration in public is deeply out of keeping with Khmer cultural norms and will not accelerate any outcome. Accepting the pace of things as they are — unhurried, flexible, ultimately generous — is the most effective way to experience Cambodia.